Contents

Summary

Buffy hovers above a lake feeling pangs of guilt after finding out that the source of her new abilities is from the power of dead Slayers. Xander attempts to use food and humor to try and raise Buffy’s spirits, but to no avail. Buffy now likens herself to be no better than a vampire because of the fact that she has sucked the power from the over two hundred Slayers that have died since the organization began. He tries to convince her that she isn’t killing them and taking the power but merely absorbing their power when they die, Buffy does not see the difference in the two scenarios and begins to cry.

Meanwhile at Twilight HQ, standing before Faith, Giles and Andrew, Twilight contemplates who amongst the three will be the first to die. Giles begins to recognize Twilight’s voice, and Twilight is not surprised by this and reveals the masking of his voice was a spell cast by Amy to conceal his real identity, and without her magic to conceal it any longer, Giles can, if able, figure out the truth about who he is.

Back at the lake, Xander tries once more to cheer Buffy up and tells her that he knows what she can do, because he has seen it all, and even though she is gaining all of these abilities from deceased Slayers, there has got to be a reason why the universe is allowing her to have it. He reminds her that she was chosen for a reason and that she is meant to be where she is now. This seems to make Buffy feel better and Xander admits he stole the speech from Pa Kent in Superman I, and figured it would work on Buffy since the superpower scenarios are similar. Willow appears as a giant floating head to Xander and Buffy, urging Xander to hurry with Buffy and pondering the progress he has made with her. Buffy now appears ready for action and asks Xander what they need to do next, and Xander reveals they are going to find Twilight.

At Twilight HQ, Faith lunges for Twilight in the hopes of taking him on. He grabs her by the throat in mid-air and tries to make her realize that battling her would not be a fair fight. She reminds him she isn’t playing fair and kicks him in the groin. Unmoved by this in any way, he reminds Faith that he is invulnerable and throws her to the ground hard.

In Willow's hut, Willow and Amy are encircled by candles and surrounded by Slayers, including Buffy and Satsu as well as Dawn and Xander and the General and Warren. Willow and Amy trade insults while attempting to undo the magic that has been hiding Twilight’s HQ, which, Amy reveals, has been hidden three seconds in the future which makes it even harder to detect. Buffy can feel Faith’s pain as Twilight attacks her, and states that it is not just Faith she can feel, but other Slayers as well; Satsu finds this bizarre but they continue to monitor their screens for any signs of Twilight’s HQ. Warren and the General talk amongst themselves and Warren is angry that Twilight stole the headquarters after Warren used so much time and intelligence working on it. The general merely tells him to keep calm and that they will be back on track soon enough. Dawn and Xander overhear this, and Dawn becomes skeptical about trusting the trio who has done nothing but try to kill them in the past. Xander agrees but reminds her that before they can deal with Warren, Amy and the General, they must deal with Twilight first.

Cut to villain HQ, Faith is badly hurt on the ground at Twilight’s feet. He reminds her that he knows how strong she really is, but when she doesn’t get up right away, he seems generally concerned about her. Back at Willow’s hut, Amy and Willow continue their spell while Satsu monitors for any sign of the HQ showing up on the grid. Back at Twilight HQ, Giles begins to piece together Twilight’s abilities and begins to suspect that his powers are similar to Buffy’s new abilities. Soon, Satsu begins to see an outline of villain HQ and tells Buffy to be ready for take off very soon.

As Twilight stands over Giles, who is still cowering on the floor, Twilight begins to talk about Watchers and Slayers, and how throughout history, each Watcher has hoped that their Slayer would be THE girl, and Faith, still rebounding from her injuries, asks Giles what Twilight means. Twilight seems surprised that with all of the travelling Giles has done, that he would have told Buffy or at least Faith what he was truly looking for, and states that now that Giles hasn’t told Buffy the truth, it is too late for her to know what she has become. As he continues to speak about how Buffy cannot fight what she has come up against, Andrew, all decked out in various superhero garb, hits Twilight in the back of the head with a Frisbee. Meanwhile, the final three second countdown to the HQ reveal has begun and as soon as the location is revealed, Buffy takes flight. As Andrew and Twilight banter back and forth, Buffy flies into the side of Twilight’s citadel, and with superhuman strength, forces her way through and takes Twilight into her hands and brings him back into the air with her. As she talks about the lame choosing of his villainous name (comparing it to the book series of the same name), he pulls off his mask and his true identity shocks Buffy. Twilight is — Angel.

Angel smiles at Buffy, who merely kicks him through the air and into the forest. Back at Twilight HQ, Andrew, Giles and Faith recover from their ordeal. Giles announces to the other two that Twilight is Angel and Andrew seems confident that Buffy will win against him. Giles tells him that she will not prevail and that no matter what she does now, there is no winning. Back in the forest, Angel and Buffy are playing a game of cat and mouse. Angel tries to find Buffy, who is convinced that he is really Angelus again. He hears this, and promises he is not Angelus, and deep down, Buffy knows that, she feels it. Angry and not caring, Buffy pulls a tree from the ground, whittles the end down with her teeth and hands to make a very large stake. Aiming for Angel, she throws the tree stake at him, but the minute it comes in contact with his body, it is reduced to nothing but wood chips. Willow, Xander and Satsu listen from below, and hear a sonic boom, Willow believes that the noise came from the pair fighting each other.

Buffy lashes out at Angel for causing the death of her Slayers, and as she tries in vain to hit him, he explains that he did not kill any Slayers and stating that the deaths were already happening, which Buffy blames on him and his anti-Slayer movement. Angel says that regardless, governments and powerful world individuals as well as demons were lining up to eliminate the Slayers, dubbed terrorists, which Buffy created. Angel says that if it weren’t for him, the amount of Slayer casualties would have been higher had he not donned the costume and united all the threats to her army under him with talks of a master plan. He sees Buffy’s attempts to hit him are getting nowhere, and when he tells her that hitting will not make her feel better, she knocks him through a bunch of trees. He recovers quickly and continues to talk to Buffy about how this time the power that she has isn’t coming from Slayers, and that it is like his power, and it is a power they have both been waiting for, what they have earned and what they need. Buffy, now glowing, tackles him through a few more trees, cursing him for lying to her about the power and asks why, if his intentions were so noble, he hid for all this time. Angel tells her he hasn’t been hiding, and tries to tell her that something happened to him in LA, something for the better but she doesn’t care about any of it, she just cares why he put her and her friends through what he did for the last year. He explains that when she shifted the balance of power by creating the Slayers, and that everything he had done was to distract the bad guys and focus her to what she has become. He tells her that what she feels inside right now isn’t rage, guilt or confusion, but rather the connection between them. She knows he is right but doesn’t say it and continues to fight him. He points out to her that every time she gets close to him, she begins to glow and that what they are doing isn’t just another fight, it is history in the making. Meanwhile, after the silence in the air, Willow, Xander and Satsu deduct that the pair are now talking.

Back in the forest, Buffy tries to play off her glowing body, which has expanded from her arm to her whole body and Angel tells her to just let go and give into the feeling and let her body do the talking. She does, and he tells her that her body is not talking, and Angel tells her it was not going to, but rather sing to her and that what she is feeling is joy. Reminding her of their painful pasts with a lack of joyful memories, and tells her that this power and this feeling are their future. Buffy tells him that he doesn’t know her anymore, and he agrees, but tells her there is a divine reason why he fell in love with her the moment he saw her(why he still loves her) and why they are where they are now and being blessed with an unholy power and also why they can never be happy with anyone but each other. He also tells her that there is a reason why her body is glowing and why even though he is so powerful right now, he feels weak because of the fear that she will leave not knowing the full truth of the glow and her power. He asks her, as she tears up, if she wants to be happy. They both begin to glow and Buffy hovers above the ground for a moment, staring into Angel’s eyes then pulls him into a deep, passionate kiss. Hearing another sonic boom, Xander and Satsu determine the pair are fighting again, but Willow thinks the sonic boom is the result of them having sex.

Continuity

Twilight's identity is finally revealed in this issue.

The reveal of Twilight's true identity to be Angel was spoiled ahead of the release of this issue due to the covers of the following issue (which clearly show David Boreanaz's likeness) being revealed in April's comic book solicitations.

The situation between Buffy and Angel is slightly similar to what took place between Buffy and Spike "Smashed" as she had fought with both of them before sleeping together.

Prior to the release of this issue, artist Georges Jeanty released a mock cover apparently showing Twilight's true identity to be Barack Obama.

Species

Weapons and Objects

Deaths

Behind the Scenes

Collections

Quotes

"Regardless of what Buffy does - there is no winning."

―Rupert Giles

"Stop talking! Your best asset was that you weren't a talker!"

―Buffy Summers

"There’s a reason we can’t be happy with anyone else. And there’s a reason you’re whole body is glowing right now. And there’s a reason that, despite all this power coursing through me, what I feel right now is weak. I’m terrified you’ll go. You’ll leave before we have a chance to explore what this really is, this glow. What if, just once, the right thing for us to do is also the most wonderful? Buffy…don’t you want to be happy?"